KELANA JAYA, Feb 19 — Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) strives to to bring back the airline’s glory days through digitising its platform by developing mobile applications.

Its chief executive officer, Peter Bellew said the MABHackathon Challenge, a series of hacking labs and activities was launched by the airline in November to develop prototypes from creative and innovative ideas utilising the application programming interface (API) and platform provided by the airline’s IT division.

According to him, the challenge was the first of its kind in the Southeast Asian region developed to position the airline to become more creative and innovative which would ultimately provide its customers with a much more superior experience.

“We were delighted to receive such positive response from university students, budding entrepreneurs and business partners to be part of the airline’s digital transformation journey via the MABHackathon.

“We hope that participants benefit from this initiative and continue pursuing their passion for innovation,” he said after the prize-giving ceremony held at the Malaysia Airlines Training Academy, here, today.    “As this will be a yearly programme, we want to encourage more local talents

to participate in our challenge,” he added.

This year’s winner, ‘Ukay Wizard’, made history by becoming the first group to win an airline hackathon in Malaysia. It received RM20,000 and Economy Class return tickets to London.

The first runner-up, ‘The Gravity WolfPack’ and second runner-up ‘Paper Plane’ received a cash prize of RM15,000 and RM10,000 as well as return Economy Class tickets to Sydney and Seoul respectively.

Bellew said the programme would help improve the efficiency of the airline’s overall operations and was a testament to MAB’s commitment in embarking on this innovation journey towards digital revolution.

The two-day hacking event saw a total of 100 participants grouped into 21 teams, which competed with each other to develop a prototype or mobile app solution which was presented to a panel of judges from MAB subsidiaries (MASwings, Firefly and Aerodarat Services).

The apps were also presented to its partners, travel and transportation industry leader IBM Asia Pacific, Greater China and Japan, Maxis and Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC). — Bernama